Dreams about people

Death

Usually about a chapter closing rather than a person dying. Dreaming of your own death is more often read as transformation than as fear of dying.

An ex-partner

Usually about the version of yourself you were in that relationship rather than the person. What the dream returns to is often the thing that was never said.

A baby

A new part of life needing attention. A crying baby is often read as something neglected.

A wedding

Jungian readings treat it as integration — two aspects of the self reconciling rather than two people.

An ex partner

Unfinished business with a version of yourself, more often than with the person.

Sister

A peer inside the family — sister dreams often concern comparison rather than the person.

Family

The cast you did not choose — family dreams are the most literal in the dictionary and the hardest to generalise.

Old friends

People from a version of your life that has closed — the dream is about the period, not the person.

Celebrity

A person you know without knowing — celebrity dreams work because the figure is familiar and has no reciprocal relationship with you.

Police

Authority arriving uninvited — police dreams concern being judged by rules you did not set.

Father

Authority in its first form — father dreams stage the relationship as it currently is, not as it was.

Explosion

Something contained failing all at once — explosion dreams are about pressure with no release valve.

Brother

A peer inside the family — sibling dreams usually concern comparison.

Son

Responsibility for someone still forming — child dreams concern the future more than the child.

Husband

The partner as an institution rather than a person — spouse dreams often concern the arrangement.

Prison

Confinement with a reason attached — prison dreams differ from being trapped by the presence of judgement.

Other categories

Actions and situations Animals Places Objects Nature and elements The body

48 subjects · 140,610 searches a month

Every people dream people ask about

Ordered by how often each is actually searched. We publish the demand figure because it answers a question no dream dictionary does: is your dream unusual, or is it one of the most common ones there is.

#	Dream about	Searches / month	Share of category
1	Dead people	19,800	14.1%
2	Dead person	13,860	9.9%
3	Someone died	13,700	9.7%
4	Someone dying	12,100	8.6%
5	Ex boyfriend	6,160	4.4%
6	Old boyfriend	5,800	4.1%
7	Boyfriend cheating	5,500	3.9%
8	Twins	4,960	3.5%
9	Dead family	4,400	3.1%
10	Family	4,400	3.1%
11	Sister	4,400	3.1%
12	Police	3,000	2.1%
13	Man	2,600	1.8%
14	Killing people	2,400	1.7%
15	Famous people	1,900	1.4%
16	Celebrity	1,900	1.4%
17	Crush	1,760	1.3%
18	Dead father	1,760	1.3%
19	Dead grandmother	1,760	1.3%
20	Old friends	1,600	1.1%
21	People	1,600	1.1%
22	Old friend	1,600	1.1%
23	Parents dying	1,440	1%
24	Ex husband	1,440	1%
25	People dying	1,300	0.9%
26	Doctor	1,300	0.9%
27	People who have died	1,300	0.9%
28	Dead person alive	1,180	0.8%
29	Ex girlfriend	1,180	0.8%
30	Dead family members	1,000	0.7%
31	Father	1,000	0.7%
32	Dead family member	1,000	0.7%
33	Husband cheating on me	880	0.6%
34	Mom	880	0.6%
35	Dead person in	880	0.6%
36	Dead parents	880	0.6%
37	Sex with your ex	720	0.5%
38	Boyfriend cheating on me	720	0.5%
39	Friends	720	0.5%
40	Childhood home	720	0.5%
41	Dead parent	720	0.5%
42	Friend	720	0.5%
43	Seeing dead person in	720	0.5%
44	People from your past	590	0.4%
45	Dead friends	590	0.4%
46	Woman	590	0.4%
47	Someone died in	590	0.4%
48	Woman driving car in	590	0.4%

The most-asked people dream is Dead people at 19,800 searches a month — 14% of everything in this category. Just 6 of the 48 subjects account for half the demand, which is the usual shape: a handful of dreams everybody has, and a long tail almost nobody asks about.

12 with full pages · 14 listed here · 54,440 searches a month in this category

Everything else people dream about in this category

These are searched too rarely to justify a page each, and a thin page would serve nobody. The figure is how often the subject is looked up per month — the one thing about it that is actually countable.

Friend 1,600 Out body experience 590 Teacher 590 Wife cheating 480 Girlfriend cheating 680 Boyfriend 410 Stranger 780 Grandmother 350 Boss 320 Childhood 310 Exorcism 280 Dating celebrity 280 Daughter 260 Mother 210